Gender Dysphoria

Gender dysphoria

Dissociation between a person’s biological sex and gender identity. Patients desire to become the opposite gender

Brain sex theory

Biological theory which suggests dysphoria is caused by specific brain structures which are incompatible with a person’s sex

Zhou

BSTc is 40% larger in males by 5. Studied 6 MTF individuals and found that the BSTc size was similar to biological females

Kruijuer

MTF neuron numbers were similar to females

Heylens

39% of MZ twins were concordant for dysphoria vs no DZ twins

Ovesey and Person

Psychodynamic approach. Suggest that dysphoria in males in caused by extreme castration anxiety. Children form a symbotic fusion fantasy to the mother and adopt her gender identity

Stoller

MTF identities display overly close relationships with their mothers

Liben and Bigler

Cognitive approach. Developed the dual pathway theory of dysphoria:

• First pathway - Development of gender appropriate behaviours as a schema

  • Second pathway - Attitudes to gender are influenced by the child’s gender schema. For example, a boy who plays with dolls may come to believe that it’s gender appropriate behaviour for both genders. This leads to non-sex typed schemas which can cause dysphoria in small numbers of individuals

Hulshay et al.

Found that HRT in transgender individuals affected the BSTc size even after 5